'Wipro in talks to buy British BPO firm'

The value of the deal could be around Rs 9,800 cr

Wipro, the country's third-largest information technology services company, is looking at acquiring Equiniti, UK-based back-office services provider that manages pensions of millions of UK civil servants, British television channel Sky News said on Monday. Equiniti, which is owned by private equity player Advent International, employs around 3,000 people. According to the report, the value of the deal could be well over £1 billion (around Rs 9,779 crore).

"Sky News understands that Wipro is among a clutch of prospective bidders which in recent weeks have lodged their potential interest in a takeover with Equiniti's owners," it said.

"A takeover of Equiniti by Wipro would be one of the largest Indian takeovers of a UK company; by value, it would trail deals such as Tata Motors' purchase of Jaguar Land Rover and Tata Steel's acquisition of Corus, both of which took place nearly a decade ago," the report added.

When reached for comments, a Wipro spokesperson said, "We don't comment on market speculation." Equiniti, too, declined to comment when approached by Sky News. The report also said that the other possible buyers of Equiniti include the Canadian pension fund Omers and the buyout firm Hellman & Friedman.

With the change in the business environment, which has resulted in a drastic change in the manner global clients buy their technology services requirements, the Indian IT outsourcing providers are expected more acquisitive in days to come.

Wipro's Bengaluru-based rival Infosys has made its intent clear to pursue a very active inorganic growth strategy by buying innovative technology companies. Infosys expects the inorganic growth to contribute $1.5 billion to its overall revenue in 2020, by when the firm expects the revenues to touch $20 billion.

While Wipro had been quite acquisitive in the past following a string of pearl acquisition strategy, in pace seems to have slowed down in the recent past. The only large acquisition Wipro has done so far is that of Infocrossing, the then Nasdaq-listed company it bought in August 2007 for about $600 million (approximately Rs 2,430 crore).